Assault Class
The Assault Class is one of the Soldier Classes in the game XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The primary role of the Assault Class is aggressive reconnaissance, flanking, and drawing enemy fire. Rookie promotion is slightly weighted toward classes you have fewer of, but promotion is otherwise completely random. XCOM Database As the first and last units on the ground, these troops are initially equipped with XCOM's proprietary combat shotgun. However they may still deploy with the assault rifle. Weapons The Assault Class can be equipped with Rifles and Pistols and is the only class that can equip Shotguns. Abilities When a soldier is promoted, certain ranks give the player the option to choose 1 from the 2 available abilities to give to their soldier. Builds & Tactics Whether you are building a tanky Assault (left side promotions) or an aggressive one (right side promotions), there are a couple times you might want to consider crossing the aisle: Rapid Fire and Lightning Reflexes. Rapid Fire is perhaps the best double shot ability in game; while it gives a -15 Aim penalty, taking two shots will average out to more damage in most cases, except in situations of exceptionally low chances to hit. It will also allow you to move or Run & Gun and then take two shots. Lightning Reflexes allows you to negate an enemy Overwatch and run even when Suppressed without worry of reaction fire. As it's not always clear if an enemy is on Overwatch in the fog of war, Lightning Reflexes remains useful all game long. But mostly, Lightning Reflexes dominates Council Missions where Thin Men frequently spawn on Overwatch behind your lines which can make the first few Council Missions the most challenging missions of a whole game playthrough. Be extremely wary of over extending with an Assault. Assaults are the definitive reconnaissance and CQB unit, and will most likely take point in situations. Often the closest unit to aliens, it will be shot at the most. Based solely on quantity of fire directed towards your assaults, they can go down with frightening rapidity. Consider giving your assault the best armor and HP boosting items available for this reason. While in EU small movements with Overwatch could be used in all situations, giving the assault a solid base of fire to back him up, the addition of Meld in EW sometimes requires riskier movements that will see assaults alone, flanked, and shot. In XCOM: Enemy Within, Close and Personal is greatly improved, potentially allowing a soldier to take up to three shots during his or her turn if combined with Rapid Fire, and allowing the soldier to dash out of cover to point blank range, shoot, and run back into cover. However, many late game robotic enemies will now also automatically go into Overwatch when discovered, meaning that Lightning Reflexes is also more useful. Tactical Sense vs Aggression * Aggression's bonus fully stacked is +30%. When combined with a shotgun (+20%) on a flank(+50%), this results in 100% crit. At 100% you can plan your turn around having the crit, making some risky attacks a sure bet and a decisive victory. * Aggression's bonus critical chance is always at least 10%, meaning with Close and Personal, a rifle will be a guaranteed critical hit in a point blank flanking shot. Normally, only with a shotgun can you plan on a critical as such. This no longer works with the reworked Close and Personal from XCOM: Enemy Within. * Aggression's bonus is potentially extremely valuable clearing melee packs, where it is often one turn, one volley, kill-or-be-killed. * Aggression aids in overcoming critical chance reduction on enemies with a "Hardened" property, such as Sectopods, Ethereals, and Cyberdiscs. * If you take the suppression builds in your heavies and supports, you'll be more inclined to take Aggression as many targets will be marked for death but not killed until the following turn, meaning your assault will more frequently have full stacks of Aggression for their flanks. These builds, the Heavies' in particular, are generally weaker than their alternatives and Aggression alone does not justify taking them. * Aggression rarely stacks to 30%. Moving up with more than one alien alive and in sight is risky and often hazardous as you can potentially activate more aliens as you charge in, resulting in the Assault getting overrun. Also, due to the possibility of front line fighters missing their targets and leaving the assault compromised and surrounded, the Assault generally moves up last, after all other shots have been decided. This kills a lot of the aliens providing the Aggression bonuses. That said, sometimes you can hold back on guaranteed kill actions such as rockets, Sniper shots from high ground, or grenades until Aggression assaults have fired to preserve their bonus. * Tactical Sense provides an always-on defensive boost of 5%, and if you activate more aliens late in a turn, Tactical Sense can protect you. It helps when being flanked, aiding in dodging potentially lethal critical fire. * Tactical Sense allows you to end a turn in partial cover, and still have similar cover quality to the rest of your squad. This allows more direct attack paths to the enemy while remaining in relative safety. * With Tactical Sense you also gain outstanding "tanking" ability, ideally when hunkering down behind indestructible full cover, where even the high ground advantaged and light plasma rifle wielders cannot hit you and must advance to flank. * When a Tactical Sense Assault is behind full cover, aliens will often ignore the Assault and choose to shoot at another soldier on the front line, when available. This can negate the advantage of a Tactical Sense entirely in certain engagements. * Tactical Sense Assaults pair extremely well with Squadsight Snipers as they can be so far away that they can't be targeted. This combination allows for unlimited free shots for as long as the assault's positioning and cover holds. * Tactical Sense is the traditional talent chosen for players opting to rely on a double heavily promoted Squadsight Sniper grand strategy. * Tactical Sense is generally better early on when a single shot landing into full cover from aliens can be lethal. * Tactical Sense is less relevant late in the game, where aliens have significant aim bonuses, psionics, and other specials. At this point the most effective counter is to kill them before they get a turn to act, and as such Aggression contributes more to clearing groups effectively. As the early game is so difficult and the late game is relatively easy, Tactical Sense earns another win overall here. * Tactical Sense has no effect against melee enemies such as Chryssalids and Berserkers, which hit automatically. Build ideas # Balanced Build - Tactical Sense, Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Fire, Close Combat Specialist, Resilience. # Shotgun Assault - Aggression, Close and Personal, Rapid Fire, Close Combat Specialist, Resilience. # Rifle Lineman Assault - Aggression, Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Fire, Bring 'Em On, Killer Instinct. # All-out endgame Shotgun with Midgame Fire support (All right side abilities). Light Plasma has a high hit rate, but low damage, so it is ideal for use with Bring 'Em On. 7 dmg crit -> up to 12 dmg crits, a massive boost! A great lineman rifleman, with enough stopping power with 100% flanking crits to still pass in close quarters combat. After researching Light Plasma Rifle, there will be a timing window where you'll have a bunch of those lying around but would need to manufacture scatter lasers with alloys, and alloy cannons are not yet available. Use heavies to break cover and wipe out groups with a hail of accurate, medium damage gunfire from long range without having to flank and potentially alert extra groups. Endgame this is the most damaging alloy cannon assault build possible.'' Be sure another assault brings Lightning Reflexes to the squad, though.'' Multiplayer Assault Classes The following is a detailed break-down of the Assault class stats and abilities in multiplayer mode. Note: Each soldier class has a base cost of 800 points, which would need to be added to the values above to determine the point value of a particular build. The above point and stat values reflect the default (i.e. 0 point) equipment load-out. Category:Soldier Classes